


Fire doesn't need a dragon to kill

by Inkdreamer



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, F/M, Fire, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Married Couple, Pre-The Hobbit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:15:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26839555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkdreamer/pseuds/Inkdreamer
Summary: A fire spreads in laketown. Perhaps too quick.
Relationships: Bard the Bowman/Bard the Bowman's Wife, Bard the Bowman/Original Female Character(s), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Kudos: 3





	Fire doesn't need a dragon to kill

They were awoken by screams and shouting in the middle of the night.  
"What in the world..." Bard squeezed his eyes shut and tried to put together what could have caused a such mayhem, but he just couldn't put his finger on it until one word cut clear through the noise: "Fire!"  
He froze in his tracks. He looked at Elin, and the alarm in her eyes equaled his own. "Come on," his wife stuttered breathlessly and took his hand. Together they ran down the stairs only in their nightclothes and out of the house.  
The chaos outside was overwhelming. The whole town seemed to be up, running around like henns without heads. People screaming, shouting, crying, running, tripping, ... 

It wasn't hard to see where the mess emerged from.  
Three houses, just down the footbridge stood in flames. The light was blinding, red and orange burning high into the sky like they wanted to burn out the stars themselves.  
He felt Elin clutch harder at his hand, and he knew what she was thinking; Dragon.  
He searched the sky for the beast but it was nowhere to be seen. He grabbed a man running past by the arm and shouted against the noise: "What caused this fire?"  
The man shrugged in confusion "'Dunno" and ran away. Bard let out a sigh of relief. No dragon then. Still, fire. It needed to be stopped before burning down the whole town. 

"All men to the fire!" He heard a voice somewhere in the crowd. "The families are still inside!" Pure fear shot through his veins. They didn't know the families well, but two of them had little children. He had to help. Bard turned around to Elin.  
"Go to the women fetching water" he shouted. "You'll be safe there!"  
"What?!" She shook her head vehemently "No!"  
"Elin, please!" This was really not the time for her to be worried about him.  
"You can't go into the fire!" She all but screamed at him. Her voice was high pitched with fear and her eyes widened in terror.  
"I have to."  
"Come with me!" She reached out for his other hand and squeezed it hard. "Please!"  
Bard shook his head. It broke his heart to do this to her, but they both knew he had to.  
"Bard, I'm begging you-"  
Her words were cut short by his kiss. "Don't follow me!" 

With that he pulled away and ran.  
He could hear her screaming his name behind him, and it nearly made him turn around, if only for her not to do anything stupid. He could only hope she would do as he'd said and not follow him. But he wasn't so sure. 

~ 

Elin stared at the spot he had disappeared in the crowd. "Bard!!" She screamed his name into the night like her life was depending on it. "Come back!" She searched the crowd for his tall figure, but it only took seconds and she couldn't see him anymore. Her eyes filled with tears and her voice broke. "Bard," she sobbed to herself. She suddenly felt nautious, and if he wouldn't come back immediately she was sure she would vomit. She would have, if it hadn't been for Ylva, her friend, to grab her by the shoulder. "Elin?"  
Elin grabbed her arm, desperate for something to hold onto. "Bard!" she sobbed "he went to the fire!"  
Ylva nodded. "I know. Jelle went too." Worry flickered across her face, but it was gone as fast as it had come.  
Elin's eyes widened. Jelle and Ylva had three children, and he'd gone to fight the fire. Who was she to be worried? "But... but they can't..."  
"They have to." Ylva grabbed her hand. Somehow she seemed to know what to do, and that she needed guidance She pulled her to the side of the footbridge where the women were already filling buckets with water. 

Elin knelt beside her friend and whiped her tears. She had to pull herself together, she could cry when it was all over. To whatever outcome. "Where are your children?" she asked Ylva while they filled the buckets.  
"They went with Jelle's parents" Ylva said. She was an orphan like her, Jelle's parents were the only grandparents their little ones had. Suddenly Elin wondered were Bard's parents were. She'd known them since she'd been a child, as long as Bard had been her friend, and they were like her own parents.  
"They went to the master's house" Ylva answered her thoughts.  
"What good will that do," Elin snorted. The master wouldn't be much of a help in this, if he wouldn't send the old to fight the fire aswell. 

As the night went on, the fire feasted on two more rooftops, and no matter how many buckets they sent out, it just wouldn't shrink. The fight went on into the early morning hours when the dawn started to lighten the horizon like it didn't mind the fire at all, and the smoke seemed to get darker and darker. The men, that came to collect the water buckets, had faces as black from soot and desperate as the night itself, but the worst for Elin was that none of them were Bard. She asked if they'd seen him, if he was alright, but all she ever got was an exhausted shrug. Her worries grew and grew, and more than once Ylva had to hold her back from following the men to the fire. "Getting youself killed won't be any help to him," she said. 

It took two more hours to put the fire out. 

Now that she knew there was no fire she could loose her friend to anymore, Ylva left her alone to search for her family. Elin watched them reunite on the market only a few minutes later. Jelle's blonde hair was drenched with sweat and as dark as Bard's from all the smoke. She asked him whether he'd seen him, but he shook his head. "I'm sure he's fine," he said in a comforting tone and smiled. Elin gave a weak smile back and turned around before they could see her tears. 

She asked everyone who walked past her for her husband but no one seemed to have seen him. In the end she just sat down right in the middle of the footbridge and burried her face in her hands. How the hell could she not find him in such a little town? She refused to think about the only logical answer. Bard was not dead. He couldn't be! 

But where was he then? 

All of a sudden she felt warm arms wrap around her, and a familiar voice whispered in her ear: "I'm here, love."  
She nearly choked on her cry of relief. She threw her arms around him, kissed him, hugged him so tightly he could barely breathe, dug her hands onto his hair and cried. Bard laughed softly. "Tis all right, sweet."  
"I hate you!" she sobbed.  
"I know. I love you too."  
"You could have widowed me, you son of a bitch!" She wanted to slap him, she hated him so much! "How dare you?!"  
"I'm sorry."  
"No, you're not!" She pulled away and glared at him. It was the first time she truely looked at him after the fire. He looked like a living corpse. His hair was full of dust and ash, sticking to the side of his face that was wet with sweat. He looked so tired. She nearly burst out in tears again. With a weak sniff she started wiping the coal off his face. 

"Why did you go?"  
"You know I had to."  
"But I asked you not to!"  
Bard watched her carefully as she continued to clean his face. She didn't even want to know what she looked like. "And I asked you not to follow me," he countered lovingly "I know you did."  
Elin lowered her gaze. "I wanted to," she answered quietly. "Ylva stopped me."  
"Remind me to thank her for that."  
The smallest of all smiles spread across her face. 

They stayed silent for a while as she wiped the dirt off his cheeks. He laughed when she reached his nose. 

Bard pressed his forehead to hers. "Let's go home," he whispered.  
Elin nodded. "Promise never to leave me again," she asked quietly.  
He kissed her, and she could still taste the smoke on his lips. "Never."

**Author's Note:**

> In case you're interested (and speak german) there is a full multi-chaptered love story for these two on fanfiktion.de on my account Tintentraum. It's called "Kinder des Sees"


End file.
